The Galvin Opinion

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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

IT'S THE TERRORISTS, STUPID

Once again, people are blaming everyone for terrorism except the terrorists themselves

Here's a novel concept; When a group of people get together, conspire to kill by blowing up buildings, trains, planes, through any other means, and carry out their aims, they are the ones to be held responsible for the mass killings. They are to be hunted down, punished and eradicated from our midst. It is the terrorists who aim to destroy our lives, rob our futures and strike fear in our communities. We are all in this, together.

Unfortunately, some people feel that blame for terrorist activity still falls on us and our leaders. Somehow, we are the ones who are at fault and the terrorists are blameless. For some, it is too hard to make that easy step to condemn the terrorists of the world.

When bad things happen under a government's watch, the officials responsible ought to be held accountable.

Oh really? I disagree. I believe the terrorists are responsible for the bad things. But, if he's consistent with his theory does that mean he's holding Bill Clinton responsible for running away from Somalia, for not doing anything about the first World Trade Center bombing, for the bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, for the bombings of the 2 American embassy's in Africa, for the bombing of the USS Cole? I wonder.

What I do know is that I hold the terrorists responsible for what happened in Madrid, last week. I do not hold any Spanish authorities responsible. We know that terrorism is an evil to be reckoned with and responsible parties have been saying for the last 30 months that another major attack is not a question of "if" but "when." Gleefully blaming Aznar, Rajoy and others for the Madrid massacre is a pathetic display.

In addition, what is Calpundit talking about? He seems to want to straddle the fence on this Spanish election issue. He uses one post that quotes one person in Barcelona as the basis for either hardening or changing his positions on what happened in Spain, last week. Apparently, Maria from Barcelona's take is good enough for him to stop equivocating on what happened in Spain. There is no need to make things more complicated than they really are. I, on the other hand, take a look at the facts and decide for myself.

It is not hard to understand that when terrorists place bombs on trains in a major metropolitan area that they have an intent to carry out a result and that there is a message attached to their murderous intent. Terrorists do not merely place bombs on trains for the thrill of it. They have a frustrated political agenda and violence is the only we way in which their demented voices can be heard. The terrorists want to get rid of as many governments as possible that are hostile to their agenda.

Therefore, the intent of the terrorists attacks on the Madrid trains was to get rid of the PP government and help the Socialists get swept into power based on the palpable fear placed in voters. The "lying and manipulation" explanation is a smoke screen and Calpundit should not have bought into it so readily.

The bottom line is that the terrorists got what they wished for in the Spain elections.

Update: A good reminder from IMAO about the perils of electing a socialist. But, unfortunately, there are those, like Brad DeLong, who would rather believe wild-eyed conspiracy theories than face facts. Liberals are using the narrow-minded argument that getting Osama bin Laden is the only way to win the fight against. They truly must not think that finding remnants of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is the only way to go in this world-wide fight. There are many forms and varieties of terrorists today. The liberals know it, but they hate having to give George Bush any credit for having a dynamic strategy in pursuing many forms of terrorists.